Rush Medical College, 1837-1942, was founded by physician Daniel Brainard (1812-1866) and chartered 2 March 1837, two days before the city of Chicago received its own charter. The school's downtown location was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. After the fire, the school was relocated to the west side of the city, where it remains to this day. In 1883, the Presbyterian Hospital of the City of Chicago was established in affiliation with Rush Medical College. In 1887, the College became the medical department of Lake Forest University. This relation was dissolved by mutual consent in April 1898, and in the same month an affiliation with the University of Chicago was established. In May 1924, a new contract was executed between the Rush Medical College and the University of Chicago, and Rush became more of an organic part of the University. In 1941, Rush Medical College and the University of Chicago terminated their relationship, and Rush closed its doors soon after.

In July 1969, the Board of Trustees of Rush Medical College approved a merger of Rush Medical College with Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital, and the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center was established. Rush University was founded in 1972 and came to include Rush Medical College, the College of Nursing, the College of Health Sciences, and the Graduate College.

For a history of Rush Medical College, please visit The Story of Rush Medical College, 1953, by Ernest E. Irons. Most of these items were digitized and made available through the Internet Archive in 2012, through the Book Digitization Initiative Grant from the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). This includes Rush Medical College Annual Announcements, The Pulse Yearbooks, The Corpuscle student newsletter, and the newsletter of the Alumni Association, the Bulletin.